


It Could Have Been Worse

by Leonawriter



Category: Ghost - Mystery Skulls (Music Video), Mystery Skulls (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst and Feels, Gen, Though that doesn't mean there isn't any pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 05:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5444372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They go in, and then they come out, not quite in the same order and not quite all in one piece. A few seconds are really all that counts, and it could have been worse. It can always be worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Could Have Been Worse

Vivi and - supposedly - Mystery went down, and Lewis and Arthur went up.

Arthur had hung back. All the way in - wary of the cave, nervous of the presence inside of it that he could sense, even if he wasn't willing to accept that it was real just yet on a conscious level. Accepting the reality of a thing gave it a certain power. Denial could be useful, at times. Allow one to see things in a different light. 

But then, that was Arthur all over.

Lewis, Lewis all over was the taller boy walking headfirst into danger, using a flaming torch instead of a flashlight because it looked better, felt more in tune with what they were doing. Who gave the others a smile to boost them up, and told them that it'd all be fine. 

That they had dealt with worse.

Lewis was the  _brave_ one. He was scared, but he wouldn't let that overpower him. He'd also never been as truly afraid of heights as Arthur was. Not for as long as the others as known him, anyway - and who knew whether that was the truth or not for the time before that, but it did mean that he was less averse to leaning over the edge of a jut of stone that barely held itself up over a chasm of stalagmites.

Mystery's eyes were on Lewis for a fraction of a second longer than they should have been. Perhaps if he had been quicker, the entire thing could have ended faster and they could have  _laughed_ -

But wondering 'what if' had never done anyone any good, and Arthur's arm was already rising. Whatever was in the cave, it was already  _taking control_.

And Lewis was completely unaware, still rattling off facts about the cave and the area without a clue.

And Arthur was slowly realising what was happening, one side of him still trying to back away while the other leaned forward, accidentally putting far more than just one arm behind what would be an almighty  _push-_

Mystery's teeth cut the tragedy short, the dog that wasn't actually a dog acutely wishing that possession caused numbness in affected body parts, because this was going to  _hurt_ , and he knew he was right when a  _scream_ pierced the air.

Lewis finally turned around in time to have his face marked by his friend's blood, Arthur's still-green arm even now twitching in Mystery's jaws, blood on white fur.

He shook the limb out of his mouth, shook it away -  _far_ away, hopefully - because the ghost or demon could be dealt with another time. Arthur and Lewis were here,  _now_.

Arthur's scream had turned from one of frustrated rage mixed with sharp pain to raw terror and  _agony_. Where once half of the boy's face had been caught in a rictus of a smile, now both sides were streaming with tears. 

"We need to stop the bleeding," Mystery snapped out at Lewis, speaking for the first time, still bigger than normal and clearly not a dog. Lewis only blinked at first, still in shock himself, blood hot on his face, the wind-like touch of first Arthur's fingers and then Mystery's fur against him likely still playing out in his mind. Mystery growled, impatient, which got some of Lewis' attention back to the here and now. "Arthur's arm, Lewis. I'm going to find Vivi."

He was better at casting illusions than changing anything in the physical world. In illusions, he had control, and he was quite powerful, if he did say so himself. But now,  _now_ , when it came to the important moment - of course, now, he would have preferred to have learned just a  _little_ more about how to heal someone. 

Fox demon or not, Mystery felt next to useless.

Later, the four of them waiting outside the cave, he was back to his usual, smaller size. Just an ordinary white dog. Nothing unusual. Even if he hadn't been able to clean off the blood from his muzzle. 

None of them were looking at the other. Not really. Arthur was now caught somewhere between being conscious and drifting away, and it was all they could do to keep him there. Lewis was focusing on the stump, all that was left of Arthur's left arm, still trailing bright green poison-marks even long after the demon had gone. 

Mystery knew that much. He'd even  _told_ them so, in quiet, tired tones. Anything that was left, was merely a scar.

A wound on the spirit, so to speak. And that, he said, was nothing any of them other than Arthur could do anything about.

Lewis wouldn't look at him. He'd seen what Mystery truly was, and although he was taking it well so far, he was expecting it to all come out sooner or later. And Lewis wasn't looking at Arthur, either.

That wouldn't do. 

Vivi was just sitting, slumped, on the dirt in front of them. As her dog, Mystery would have nuzzled up to her, whining. And he  _tried_. He did. He shared his warmth as much as he could, but something in Vivi had  _broken_ , seeing all of this. She just wasn't responding, other than to questions and orders made directly to her, and even that was muted.

That wouldn't do at all either.

A wailing could be heard from far away, and Mystery's ears twitched. Lewis was the one who noticed first, and instead of relaxing because help was on its way, the first reaction he had was to tense up.

"What... what are we going to say?"

No one had any answers. Lewis glanced fitfully back to the road, before his attention going straight back to Arthur's arm. His lack of arm. For a moment, he looked ill, before regaining control of himself.

"He was going to-  _madre de dios_. He was going to push me."

The last was spoken in not so much more than a whisper. At this, Mystery  _did_ whine, again. 

Vivi sobbed. It was an awful sound, but after the silence that had come before, welcomed.

"I would have died. I would have  _died_."

Vivi's crying became more drawn out, less like gasping for air after not having enough to breathe. Now, it was more like what they all felt, whether or not they were showing it.

"He was possessed," Mystery said from where he was, still attempting to comfort Vivi. "It wasn't him."

"But it was  _his body_ ," Lewis shot back, and for a moment Mystery wondered if that was all Lewis was taking from this - that regardless of how much he had seen, how much he had been told, no matter the blood on his face and the fact that his hands were doing all they could to keep his friend alive, all he'd understood were the feather-light touch of fingers that  _would_ have pushed him over the edge.

And then Lewis was dragging a hand through his hair, and the moment was gone.

"I know how possession works," Lewis was saying now. "I know. Do you think I would forget so easily?"

_Possession requires a victim, of sound or unsound body and mind. An unstable mind filled with uncertainty is the easiest to gain access to, but one with an opening can sometimes work just as easily - if not more so - for certain entities._

_Usually, even this does not always work. Many would call these attempts 'intrusive thoughts', and brush them off._

_Other times, even just one opening should be enough._

He had listened to Vivi reading out passages from her books to them all enough times. They could all recite the relevant words, enough to remember. Enough to understand.

And Arthur had been looking so withdrawn recently.

The ambulance was drawing nearer. He butted Vivi slightly with his head again, knowing that she would need to come to her senses enough to be looked over, to move. Before long, her sobs had died to loud but regulated breaths, dry heaving that threatened storms at any moment, but could hold off for just one more moment, just one moment more, as long as she had something to focus on.

Her gaze fell upon the van, still parked as though nothing had happened, and then up on the cave entrance, at which she shivered.

"Things - things aren't going to be the same again, are they."

No one had truly been  _hurt_ before. A few broken bones at worst. Some scares. Racing down corridors, mistakes in mausoleums. Now, one of them had nearly died while another had lost an arm. Mystery's secret was out, and she would never have her dog back again, because you can't just  _pretend_ that everything is the same. And they would all come away with nightmares.

_Just a second longer._

_No, not even that._

Sometimes, when looking at Lewis, he could almost see the holes in his body, the ones that would have been there if time hadn't worked as it had. If he'd been slower. Almost as though he were looking through at another, alternate timeline that was sticking around just long enough to have tea before it left, leaving its impression on them all for good.

_It could have been worse_ , were the words that crossed each of their minds. For once, they weren't a reassurance.

...

AN: Okay so this has been stuck in my head for a while now and I was sure that it was something that someone must have done already. If they have, then oh well. Since I haven’t read it, I’m sure it’s come out differently. Also, for some reason I seem to be writing in Mystery’s head quite a bit. Huh.


End file.
